Mary Washington’s Dahlgren campus to open in January

The University of Mary Washington will open its third site, the Dahlgren Campus Center for Education and Research, on Jan. 3.

The 27-acre campus is designed to meet the educational needs of the people working on and near the Naval Support Facility Dahlgren in King George County. Construction on the $20 million Dahlgren Center, which is just outside the Navy base, began in summer 2010.

The university says Dahlgren Center will provide a central site for graduate science and engineering programs now offered on the base by state universities. The center also will provide the site for additional courses, work-force training programs and research initiatives.

The two-story, 42,000 square foot Dahlgren Center includes 19 classrooms with seating for 12 to 32 students, four group study rooms and two study rooms with individual workstations.

The building also has two computer-enabled classrooms and a computer lab, an executive conference room and a 2,800-square-foot multi-purpose room with theater seating for up to 220 people and instructional/banquet seating for up to 160 people.

A second building and additional parking are proposed as part of a second phase of the campus.

In addition to the Naval Postgraduate School, four state universities initially will offer Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program courses on the campus: George Mason, Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth and Virginia Tech.

The Naval War College and two Virginia community colleges, Germanna and Rappahannock, are expected to offer courses in 2012. Depending on demand, graduate and undergraduate programs in science, engineering, technology, mathematics and other related fields will be offered.

Work-force development programs and educational services will be offered on an as-needed basis.